Dew Tour Breckenridge 2016 Snowboard Practice Day One

The Dew Tour Slopestyle course opened for day one of practice Tuesday morning, with snowboarders getting the first crack at the new layout. Unlike anything Dew Tour has done in the past, this year the Slopestyle course has been divided into two sections: jump and jibs. With one 65-foot jump up top and five unique jib sections below, snowboarders had their mittens full as they took their initial laps through the course and worked out what tricks to throw where.

Max Parrot was spotted in the jib garden hiking laps to keep his toes warm while putting in work on the rails. "This [jib garden] is looking good to go! There are a lot of options out here; that is why I'm hiking, and because it is a little cold."

Parrot mentioned he was looking forward to the change in format to separate the jump and jib runs commenting, "often the judges wont pay much attention to the rails, but now they are going to have to."

However, other riders had slightly different opinions. Spencer O'Brien paused for a few minutes to chat while a light snow flurry blew through the course.

"I really like that [Dew Tour] took initiative to do something different, but I think I'm a little old school in that I like the all around aspect of a Slopestyle run," said O'Brien. That being said, she did go on to talk about the format and what does appeal to her. "It's really cool how many runs we get. I think it is very progressive and it is going to give people the chance to try new stuff."

Progression is definitely what Dew Tour is after with this year's format changes, and with the list of invited riders there should be no question that we will see a lot of it this weekend. Stay tuned as the week continues for more athlete insights and images.